North Carolina gets go-ahead in its TVA pollution suit

The state of North Carolina can proceed with a lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority that demands the utility clean up its power plants and reduce air pollution, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

If the EPA won't make TVA clean up its coal plants, maybe North Carolina can. But North Carolina's Duke Energy and the rest of the Southern state utilities that burn coal all need to clean up their act.

The horses are out of the gate on the race to build a nuclear reactor, and Metro Pulse has the scorecard. Subsidies, cost sharing, tax credits, it took just a little prodding to get investors moving. TVA has applied for a license to construct and operate two Westinghouse reactors at the mothballed Bellefonte plant along the Alabama stretch of the Tennessee River.

Can the atom save the atmosphere?

TVA met with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation on Wednesday to request a variance that would allow them to discontinue monitoring ambient sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels at six coal-fired power plants in Tennessee. The request was granted, and TVA will no longer monitor ambient SO2 at the facilities, which are:

• Bull Run
• John Sevier
• Johnsonville
• Kingston
• Cumberland
• Gallatin

TVA will still monitor point-source "smokestack" SO2 emissions at these facilities.

SO2 contributes to the formation of acid rain, which damages trees, crops, historic buildings, and monuments, and makes soils, lakes, and streams acidic affecting forests and wildlife. SO2 also contributes to the formation of atmospheric particles that cause visibility impairment, most noticeably in national parks.

The variance is a result of an October 2006 EPA rule change that relaxes standards for SO2 monitoring in areas where it is no longer believed needed.

Three conditions must be met to obtain a variance: (1) The actual sulfur dioxide emissions from a fuel burning installation do not exceed 20,000 tons per year; (2) The source must be located in an attainment area and must not significantly impact a sulfur dioxide nonattainment area; (3) Measurements of air quality in the vicinity of the source demonstrate that ambient sulfur dioxide levels do not exceed 75 percent of the ambient air quality standards for sulfur dioxide.

The good news is that TVA has significantly reduced SO2 emissions over the years and meets two of the three requirements. Ambient SO2 levels at these facilities are less than 25% of the SO2 air quality standards, and TVA has not violated ambient air quality standards at any of these facilities since 1993.

But, TVA does not meet the first requirement. In 2006, SO2 emissions exceeded 20,000 tons at all of these TVA facilities except Cumberland. Johnsonville is the worst offender at 86,800 tons, followed by Kingston at 55,500 tons. Total SO2 emissions for these six facilities were 242,200 tons in 2006.

TVA successfully argued before the EPA and TDEC that the 20,000 ton limit should not apply to them, stating "The reason that this requirement cannot be met is the fact that there are only seven coal fired power plants located within the State of Tennessee (six are listed above and the seventh is located in Shelby County and is unaffected by this variance). Consequently these power plants are very large by national standards. Thus, even burning lower sulfur coals, the actual sulfur dioxide emissions, measured in tons per year, will be very large." TDEC concurred and granted the variance.

While we applaud TVA's ongoing emission control efforts, this exemption does not appear consistent with the letter or the spirit of the weakened regulation. In fact, arguing that their facilities are too large to comply seems to defy logic.

A TDEC spokesperson provided background information on the hearing, which you can read after the jump. TDEC also forwarded a copy of TVA's request for variance, which you can read here.